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Setsuka was such a fun costume! A LOT of work to make and put on, but surprisingly comfortable to wear. And the prop was the coolest prop ever: a big red parasol (purchased at Chinatown in NY on a spring break trip) with a sword that fits in it XD we attached a piece of PVC pipe onto the handle of the parasol, screwed it on in three places right below where the pvc ended (couldn't go all the way up the handle so it could close) and slid a sword i bought online into the pipe. I fit another piece of the same PVC onto the handle of the knife so that it fit together and the handle was almost seamless. Then I spraypainted the handle red (much thanks to my brother, for helping me spray paint the parasol!). Also, much thanks to my dad, who helped me drill and screw the pvc onto the parasol. It turned out REALLY well. I actually kind of scared the weapons-check guy at the con when I pulled it out (probably because we had just tried to get him to approve a practice fencing foil). The kimono was really heavy, b/c it was pink satin lined with (because I was insane) a heavy jersey knit material. It's hand-painted, free-hand from sketches I based on the game. The shoes were bought at electric boutique, and spraypainted. It was surprisingly difficult to find platform flip-flops; they were in style several years ago but now, they're all heels instead of flat platforms. Xan helped me find the shoes online. Much thanks to her and Romy for their help in painting the triangles on the kimono trim! Also, very many thanks to Bree for doing my hair and makeup. The crown is foam and plastic, spraypainted, held onto the hair with pipecleaners. The hair sticks are also pipecleaners. The hair actually stayed very well, and I didn't use any hairspray! The structure took some improvising to get the kimono to stay hanging off of my shoulders. There are actually two sets of ties on the inside of the collar, one that ties the kimono closed at the bosom, and one a couple inches higher that holds up the bow. The bow is important structurally because it gives most of the vertical support to the whole thing. it ties around my waist, right under the chest, double knotted then tied in a bow. The obi part is actually three separate pieces, separate from the bow. Each layer velcros on, in the front, and the seam is hidden by the hanging bow. The bow itself was handpainted, based loosely on the design from the game (I couldn't find many decent pictures). The hand guards were made the night before the con, at the hotel ^^;; My second favorite part of this costume (after the parasol) are definitely the sleeves. Sure, they're huge and dangerous, but I put a pocket in the lining of each one, so that I had a place to keep my money and phone. Setsuka provides great storage :D I managed to fit several doujinshi and manga inside the sleeves themselves. And my camera fit very nicely in the obi; it was so comfortable that I often forgot it was there. Anyways, I really liked this costume, in case you couldn't tell. It's a ton of fun to wear, and the fact that we had a great group of four also helped a lot. And the parasol was a lot of fun. It was made for A-kon 17 in 2006, but I'll probably wear it again. Too much work to wear only once! We pretty much made almost all of the four costumes in one month. Technically, we made Tim's kimono (the structural part, anyway) over Christmas break, but it only took a day or two. Everything else was made within a month. Which was quite stressful and hectic, and a bit more last-minute than I'd have liked, but it turned out pretty well. SCATTER AND DIE! |
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Aaah, the obligatory skank costume. I fell in love with this costume after Soul Calibur III came out and decided that if we ever did Soul Calibur cosplay, IÕd do this one. And voila! I really love the orange color scheme of this costume since you just donÕt see all that many cool characters in orange. Another fun aspect of this was that I got to use my own hair and not bother with a wig. XD My friend Phoebe actually ended up trimming my bangs to match CassandraÕs in the hotel bathroom on Thursday night. ^_^ Overall, this was a really fun costume to wear, even if it did showcase my thighs, which are my least favorite part of myself. However, walking around like that really did allow me to say Òscrew itÓ and be comfortable with myself, when I kind of expected the opposite to happen. I loved walking around in this costume with all my friends and their awesome Soul Calibur costumes, even if I didnÕt get recognized as much since mine was a second player costume. ^^;; |
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This was my first cosplay ever Ð it was tons of fun! Especially since we had a whole group. I could never have gotten it done without Zandra Ð she did the corset, which was far beyond my meager sewing skills. I did the sleeves all by myself, though! I love Amy's costume design, but since she's an extra character, I don't think she's as well known... that, and I probably would have been a lot more recognizable if I'd been allowed to carry my foil. I'll just have to make a balsa wood sword for the next time I wear the costume, and get a wig. Possibly also shoes - the shoes I had worked pretty well, but I managed to wear holes in my feet. ^^;I did have one random guy recognize me while I was all by myself Ð that made me happy. Admittedly, it was a guy sitting in line for Hentai Fest, but still. I'm glad I got to cosplay this year! |
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Ah, yes. My very first cosplay outfit. I'm so glad it turned out as well as it did. Let's see, Zandra made the black hakama and kimono, and the rest I did mostly on my own. Practiced doing the tiger design on the sleeves multiple times before actually doing it. I used gold, black and white fabric paint, the kind that's "soft". Don't use cloth dye on such dark material, it did virtually nothing on the test pieces I did on scrap fabric. Oh yeah, always remember to run tests on scrap pieces of fabric. It'll save your life. Anyways, back to the costume. After I finished the tiger design, I was quite at a loss as to how to fashion the armor together. I had to make newspaper cutouts for the basic shape of the armor (which is surprisingly very difficult, especially when doing this on your own and the newspaper isn't cooperating with you), then used the newspaper as a pattern for cutting the foam, which I hot glued to the plastic that Zandra and Sama had left over from their Saint Seiya costumes. Just follow the links in Zandra's blurb for Shiryu if you want more details and where to buy the plastic. The foam is sold at Micheal's. Its just sheets of foam. Nothin too special. The chest armor had me at a loss, too. Good thing Zandra came and set me straight. I was about to crap out and do a half-assed job, but through proper nudging, I made the chest plates, then drilled holes in all the armor so I could sew them either to other peices of armor or sewing elastic to them. The entire chest armor was made up of... 10 peices (not including the rings, which I made from some clay stuff I bought and some metal hoops. Made the peices, put it in the oven to harden the clay. I spray painted all the armor before sewing things together. Dunno if y'all might want to do it differently. I spray-painted the armor red (instead of the original black) because that's the color scheme I use for him in the game. He looks so much more awesome in red. A good tip for spray-painting: if your can inexplicably stops spraying paint, yet you can still feel a good amount of paint in there, but the only thing coming out is a weak hiss, its probably clogged. In that case, lightly loosen the thing that you push on to make it spray (don't worry, it shouldn't spray you in the face, unless you push down), then you hold the can upside-down, then push the button. That SHOULD loosen whatever the heck is blocking/gunking up the end. Oh, the shin armor was a beyotch to put together. It's basically 6 peices per shin-guard. The right knee-pad armor actually SPLIT because I was wearing it so much at the kon, but it was worth it. Um, yeah, after that, hastily painted the waves (which I, again, had practiced multiple times) but I forgot to put cardboard behind the cloth, so it bled through slightly. This is why if y'all are making costumes, y'all should do it waay in advance. That way, you won't be too rushed and accidentally pull off stupid, lazy mess-ups due to time constraints. Anywho, to finish it off, I had a ton of makeup on. I mean, a TON. I can't grow facial hair like that, nor do my eyebrows have that same degree of thickness. Basically used an eyeliner pencil and drew a LOT of lines. Also used some makeup to make my face look a bit more different, accentuating the cheeckbones, the nose, and making more of a beetle-brow. Oh, and the scar on the shoulder was just make-up. I actually had makeup on my body, too, to make whatever muscle definition I have stand out better in the lighting. Yeah, I kinda went through a lot for this costume. Also lost a lot of weight and worked out a lot, cuz that always helps, unless you're cosplaying Gluttony or something from FMA. All this work yielded an excellent costume, if I may say so myself, even bought myself a huge foam katana at Akon 17. I plan to improve this costume later next year by perhaps adding the designs on the plates and making the chest armor bigger, more plated, and overall more detailed. I also should probably build a lot more muscle, cuz I'm a bit smaller in musculature than Mitsurugi, but then again, he's a lot of man. Very fun costume, enjoyed it very much. Happy cosplaying! ~Timsurugi |
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